the age old question of...BO

We've all been there... back in high school... oh I don't need deodorant, I don't have BO... until some senior announces in assembly that the juniors stink.

Here in Japan - they're STILL at that stage. I was chatting to a Japanese friend about trains (Sydney vs Japan/Beppu) and how I thought Japanese trains smelt like sweat and this question popped up:

(for context)
me: i think salaryment hink they don't need deo
(male) friend: you mean we japanese use a lot of perfume
me: i have no idea actually
friend: but you are perfectly right
oh, but white use it alot
Luke smelled good (Luke was the previous UTS student to study at KIT)

oh, btw
I heard white use it because they dont take shower
is that truth?

Of course I corrected this mistake:

me: it's because white people sweat A LOT
friend: LOL
omg!!!!
are u sure?
me: yeah!
friend: funny^-^

So that's what Japanese people think of caucasians lol... who knew

I mean - Jap people HAVE deodorant for sale! When i first came i thought there were no anti-perspirants cos the word doesn't exist anywhere in Japanese - but i found out that all deos are antip's lol. So far I've noticd about 3/4 brands and a whole lot of stuff in between.
When i say 'in between' girls i mean pads for your underarms... to be stuck onto the sleeve of your clothing - now that was a weird moment for me when i saw that ad on tv.

Yes trains i've been on over here mostly smell like sweat...not overpowering... but definately emanating from the seat you're sitting on >_<

Beppu... Beppu... Beppu... (Day 5)

We stayed up all night chatting. At first we were drinking in the common room but this guy was hitting on a very uncomfortable Quoc so we left:

OMG you took a pic of him. He said i was "very handsome". I know I am, but come on do you guys have to keep reminding me? It gets annoying sometimes =D


We ate brekkie at 8am and went to sleep for two hours before we farewelled Bianca.
I felt so messed up during brekky. Someone (i.e. Binkz and Becs) convinced me not to sleep. I'm super grumpy and tired when I don't get any sleep:


After the nap, we went to look for ice-cream. The ice-cream shop that the nice old-man owned was closed so we headed to the nice looking dessert place that was down the alley:


Inside joke: Back at the Giza hell Bianca was taking stalker photos of Becs and James who were sitting behind her (i.e. taking photos of them without them noticing). In one of her attempts to take a photo of them, she ended up taking a photo of herself. During that time i was sitting next to her thinking "WTF? Why is she taking a photo of herself?". Well it turns out that she owned herself by taking that photo. The following are feeble attempts to emulate that self-ownage:

That was pretty much it... Quoc? Pretty much. Besides the fact that we did some gift shopping and left about 2 hours after she did.

So there we go. A thrilling conclusion to the five part series of our adventure. Overall a very fun time. Big thanks to Binkz and James for taking the time to travel all the way to Beppu when it only took me and Becs just over an hour to get there.

Stay tuned for our next blog entry: Randomness, out-takes and videos from Beppu.

Beppu... Beppu... Beppu... (Day 4)

OK on to day 4, it was James' last day here so we wanted to knock off everything he wanted to do before he left. What was left to do? The 2 remaining Jigoku Onsens and the sand hot spring.

So after having brekky (BTW I think me and Binkz had a megamac battle rematch, which i won of course. Binkz, send me your photos!) we head out to the Giza hot springs, we saw the sign and it sounded badass. I didn't take a photo but it said something like "water shoots up 60ft into the air).

Actually it says that on a post card we were given.

We were pumped, we sat in the crowd waiting for the show to start, the steam needs to build up for about 25-30 minutes before it erupts for about 5 minutes; and during this time James showed me how to use the cool features on my camera. Here are some examples:

See the roof covering? we thought the water would shoot so high we needed to be covered from the spray...




It was then time for the show to start. How was it? See for yourself (Crap, shouldn't have recorded it sideways. Gomen ne?):

Well you can tell what we thought from the vid (P.S. I hate hearing my own voice). Anyways, off we went to the gift shop for some browsing:

More Hello Kitty!

We bought some lime liquor thing that's apparently famous in Oita (the prefecture that Beppu is in). On to the next onsen!
This lime thing is produced in Oita prfecture - and they make everything out of it.

On the way to the onsen we saw these cute drawings on the sign:

On the way to the red hell we found these goodies at the gift shop:

The mushroom is a cute version of another local produce in Oita prefecture.

BTW in case you are confused I'll quickly explain how the hells are set out in Beppu. Basically there are 8 hells all situated close to eachother (Within walking distance. Well, most of them). So the major hells that i can mention off the top of my head are: The blue (water) hell, the mud hell, the giza hell, the steam from the rock hell, and the red hell (which i'll be explaining now).

Enter the red hell!

Argh! It's the devil!

The original picture

Some fancy effects

The water here is naturally red, which is badass. According to legend, if the water bubbles the devil is talking to you. Spooky! Some more pictures + effects.

Original

Funky effects, my personal favourite. It's my new desktop pic.

Back to the gift shop:

Pikachu!

... and more Hello Kitty!

After finishing off all the Hells, we decided to hit the sand baths. At the bus stop we found an alcohol vending machine, who would've thunk it:

After getting off the bus we found ourselves at a little beach, this was where the sand bath place was.

Big friendly dog!

Summerbay, Japan

The "sand bath", what we were about to get ourselves into:

Argh! they're being buried alive!
Outside waiting area

Waiting for our turn to be buried alive:

"Look Tin! I found my thumb!" - Binkz

"Keep that camera on me any longer and I'll snap you" - Becs

"I have two feet" - Tin Tam

No photos of us in the Sand Bath, but what can I say? It really did feel like I was being buried alive. It's like when you're at the beach and everyone attacks you and buries you in sand, that's what it feels like. It sucks when you have an itch on your face as well because you can't scratch it. But apparently the sand had health benefits so overall it was fun. We were in there for 15 minutes.

When they shovel sand on you it's pretty heavy, after a while it gets really relaxing and you feel like falling asleep - this man in the row behind did lol - we heard his snoring. It's quite warm buried under the sand - very relaxing indeed.

After the sand bath we headed back to our hostel, our friend Shuichi was in Oita city (his hometown) and he told us to come by and hang out if we had time. James had to head to Oita city to catch his bus anyway so we thought we might as well head up there for a few hours. We met up with Shuichi in Oita city and we went out to Tabehoudai and Nomihoudai.

Basically it's just like a buffet where you go out and eat some food and get free drinks for around 1.5 hours to 2 hours for a set fee. It's very popular around here. Unlike in Sydney where we just go out to drink for the sake of getting pissed, people in Japan like to have food while they drink.

We had a bit of time to spare before James had to leave and go back to his hometown in Kagoshima, so we decided to go to Karaoke. It was pretty fun seeing Shuichi rapping to the Japanese portions of "Teriyaki Boyz - Tokyo Drift" while Binkz and Becs sang the English parts. Me and Shuichi had a go at "Neyo - Because of You" and it was funny seeing him sing English with his Japanese accent (L's became R's, Th's became S's). Overall, a fun night. James had to leave and we said our goodbyes.

Did we go to Takegawara? or was it Day 3? Takegawara? Speak English woman!

Stay tuned for Day 5, the final part of our crazy trip in Beppu.